This rattled me.
I called for a mental booth review. I pondered that wondrous word: "if..." and then its brother... "could..." and then the kicker: "ranked prospect. " I waited 10 minutes. Then came the decision: Upon further review, the call stands.
Mark my words: If Anthony Volpe has a great season, he could indeed achieve that fabled, lofty, august summit of ballyhooed hoopla. A top-ranked prospect!
So... you're wondering if there is a reason for this parlor game, of killing time by torturing each individual second?
Well, I just want to note that, lockout or not, the Yankee bullshit pipeline is still pumping, 24-7. And if Anthony Volpe - or Jasson Dominiquez, or Dopey Dildox for that matter - has an incredible season, yes, the Yankees will climb a mountain of ether. And before we drench the manager in Gatorade, let's think...
Here are the Top 10 Yankee prospects of 2016 from John Sickels, MILB.com's wanker - I mean RANKER! I choose 2016 not to cherry pick, but because by now, we pretty much know the fates of these burgeoning stars.
1. Gary Sanchez.
2. Jorge Mateo
3. Aaron Judge
4. James Kaprielian
5. Domingo Acevedo
6. Rob Refsnyder
7. Wilkerman Garcia
8. Dustin Fowler
9. Kyle Holder
10. Ian Clarkin
Wow. An epic list! Each of these fellows could inspire a Shakespearian tragedy, or at least a Sam Raimi trilogy. I mean, Brigadoon Refsnyder! And Dustin Fowler! whose mangled debut made Joe Girardi weep in the dugout. We still wonder Kaprielian's fate. And Aaron Judge! And Gary... oh, Gary...
Listen: I consider myself a prospect hugger. No apologies about it, either. And my reason is ironclad:
I don't want another 2009. I want another 1996.
Sure, a world championship would be nice - I mean, it's been 11 fucking years. But I want the Yankees to build a team that wins two or three rings, the kind of dynasty that their history demands. That's what separates the Yankees from - well - the world champion Braves.
And that's why these prospects - like it or not - are the most important players on the 2022 Yankee roster. And this winter, they need one thing from us.
Space.
Last year, Volpe vaulted from of nowhere to become a long term hope at shortstop. Oswaldo Peraza took another step toward the same. As for Dominquez, he's still so low in the minors that it's almost a joke to pencil him in to a meaningful future. Until he's real, he's Jackson Melian, Dermis Garcia, oh, don't make me go to the list...
The NY Football Giants just "retired" their general manager after four horrible seasons, much of which resulted from one recurring mistake: Dave Gettleman always acted as if the Giants were one player away from contending. He never built from the ground up. He's now a legitimate NY sports pariah. He'll be remembered that way until the day the Times publishes his obit. Sad.
The Yankees need to rebuild. That means from ground up. One player won't do it. We need an influx of youth.
And nothing threatens this more than hype.
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Who or what the fuck was an Ian Clarkin?
2013 draft pick, got traded with the other wunderkind Blake Rutherford in the white Sox trade that netted the immortal Todd Frazier and the returns of Kahnle and Robertson
Once a big pitching prospect, Warbler. Big, big prospect. Another first round draft pick by The Brain. In his FIFTH year in pro ball, he managed to have a pretty good season in High-A ball.
He was at least a pretty good trade, going to the White Sox with Tito Polo, Blake Rutherford, and Tyler Clip-art—do we have great names, or what?—for Todd Frazier, Tommy Kahnle, and the re-acquired Dave Robertson, back in the halcyon days of 2017.
Never mind that Rutherford, another first-round pick, was also supposed to be a can't miss prospect. And who says he HAS missed? Blake hit .250 last season in Triple-A, in his 6th year in pro ball. With 11 homers!
Hope—or something—springs eternal...
And I want it to be 1890—the year the Players' League threw the "MLB" of its day into chaos, and nearly brought down both major leagues.
Nothing else with free us of HAL.
JOE JUDGE IS GONE!!! THEY FIRED HIM!!! WHOO!!!
Take a lesson, Hal. Get a real manager.
The risk proposition re prospect hugging is that the current crop of Yankees evaluators don't really know what they're looking at. That is, they have not proven to be very good at their jobs. In the early 90s it was Stick, Bob Watson, Billy Connors and Buck. Now it's Cash, his nerds, and maybe Boonie (doubt it though). Simply not the same talent evaluation skill level. So, the risk is they hang on to mediocrity. They know this, which is why they relentlessly hype prospects hoping to fool a rival into a bad deal. But their rivals all know this, and don't fall for it anymore, if they ever did. It's pathetic really.
It's no good for the industry to publicly make fun of a marquee franchise, so it's no surprise there hasn't been a lot of chatter over the last several years from within baseball about how mediocre, and even laughable, Yankee Inc is from a talent management perspective. But imagine the jokes and the howling laughter inside Houston, Tampa, Atlanta, LA Dodgers, Boston etc HQ about the slow, dull, dimwitted Yankees. Cash's Yankees are almost certainly an industry joke. I wonder if Manfred is savvy enough to see that entrenched mediocrity for its marquee franchise is among the biggest problems his industry faces.
Dildox, Dopey - it rarely gets better than that.
Very true on both points, Publius.
No baseball exec in this town has known better how to schmooze the writers since Walter O'Malley. Case in point was Cashman getting Bob Klapisch to wax rhapsodic over him in the great Giancarlo Stanton deal (Might have also had something to do with perceived slights to Klapisch from Derek Jeter.).
He seems to be free with access—all the better to build the legend of Brian Cashman—and can point to all those winning seasons. So no real analysis gets done.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years as all the bad decisions finally come home to roost. That's why I predict he pulls out the big "rebuilding!" finale to salvage his last 5 years or so of employment.
One thing is undeniable. The number of WS rings a management team produces.
Not every variable is under its control but, over time, the proof is right there in front of everyone's faces.
In the past 21 seasons, the Yanks have one ring. They're 1-20. That's worse than Joe Judge. If the management team was a manager, they'd be fired, in most organizations.
1-20. Pathetic. But everyone keeps their jobs. They fire the strength coach and Nevin. It's insane.
Unless, of course, winning rings is not the goal. And as many here have noted, it's obviously not. But if the Yankees were a Fortune 500 company, and the CEO turned in great results one year out of 21, he wouldn't still be the CEO. And wouldn't have been for a long time.
Would you go to a surgeon who successfully performed 1 out of 21 surgeries? Me neither.
Using WS rings as the base, in the 80 years leading up to and including 200, the Yanks "batted" .337. In the 21 years since, they're batting .046. That's worse than anyone we've suffered with at first base.
There's no excuse. These guys, by design or incompetence or both, are bums. And as folks used to yell at umps, "Throw the bum out!" In our case, all of them.
leading up to and including 2000, I meant
How could you forget Chance Adams & Dietrich Enns. One of the problems I have with HOF Cashman (and there are many) is who these players were traded for. Montero was the #3 prospect in Baseball and he was traded for Michael Pinata, that's it! Mateo & Kaprielian were traded for Sonny Gray. Now these guys sucked, but other teams didn't know that.
Great point, Celerino. We could maybe give Cooperstown Cashman credit for overhyping these duds...save that he then turned around an always traded them for the wrong players.
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